A ticker symbol is a set of characters (usually letters) assigned to each financial security which is listed on a stock exchange.
This set of characters is unique to each company, so that companies with similar names can be distinguished from each other.
You might already be familiar with some tickers: FB, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX, GOOG - these are the infamous FAANG stocks!
But beware - the ticker symbol can also sometimes be a source of mass confusion!
Some hilarious examples below, because, why not:
Back in 2013, shortly after Twitter announced it would be going public, investors started aggressively buying a company TWTRQ stocks. Unfortunately, that ticker belonged to a company named Tweeter Home Entertainment (nothing to do with Twitter). Common sense would have told you that a company announcing plans to go public wouldn’t *actually* be available to invest in at the time of the announcement…oops.
Similarly in 2014, Google announced its $3.2bn acquisition of Nest Labs (the smart thermostat maker / smart home company), which sent shares of a company with the ticker NEST soaring higher. The only problem was that this ticker symbol belonged to a company named Nestor, Inc - an effectively bankrupt company. A little due diligence ahead of investing would have cleared this up, as Nest Labs was a privately owned company…oops, they did it again!
Fear not, however, as all securities available for investment on Evarvest will be clearly listed with the company name, currency, ticker symbol, stock exchange and the latest news related to that company - that *should* help clear up any potential confusion! 🙌
Please know, the value of investments can go up as well as down and you may receive back less than your original investment, meaning, when investing your capital is at risk.
Disclaimer: At Evarvest we believe in making investing and investment education more accessible, but we don’t provide investment advice and individual investors should make their own decisions. While we try our best, we cannot ensure the accuracy of the information we provide.
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